How to restart your DDNet server on a schedule

A new DDNet server has no daily restart. Build one on Quick Tasks: take Send Restart, choose Schedule…, and set a time each day. A restart installs a new DDNet release when Game Version is latest, and it is when new map votes and settings from your files take effect.

What is ready-made

Under Schedules, the box Ready-made for your game lists what the panel offers for DDNet. Today that is the Automatic backup, which new servers get by themselves when the plan includes backups. There is no ready-made restart, so you build it.

Build a daily restart

1. Open your server in the panel and click Quick Tasks in the left menu.
2. Under All tasks, open Default tasks and find Send Restart.
3. Open its menu (...) and choose Schedule….
4. Give the schedule a Name, for example Daily restart, then click Next step.
5. Choose Repeats, set How often to Every day, and set the time under At. Below, the window says when it runs, and if your time zone is different, what time that is where you are.
6. Keep Enabled on and click Schedule.

The new schedule appears under Schedules. Send Restart stops DDNet cleanly, so players see that the server shut down, and starts it again a few seconds later. Records are kept.

Warn your players first

Make a second schedule a few minutes earlier with Announce to Players: open its menu, choose Schedule…, type the message under Message, for example The server restarts in 5 minutes, and set the same days at an earlier time. See How to send a message to players on your DDNet server.

Only when nobody is playing

1. Open your restart schedule under Schedules.
2. Switch on Skip while players are online.

3. In the list When players are online, choose one:

   • Skip that run: a run that comes while anyone is playing is skipped, and the next one is tried at its own time.
   • A wait such as Wait up to 2 hours for the server to empty, from 15 minutes to 12 hours: the panel looks again every 5 minutes, restarts as soon as nobody is on, and restarts anyway when the wait is over.

DDNet tells the panel how many players are on, the same count as the Active players card. If the server cannot answer, the schedule runs. Run now always runs.

Switch it off, test it or delete it

• Use the schedule's switch to turn it off or on.
• Open its ... menu and choose Run now to test it. This restarts the server right away.
• Choose Delete schedule to remove it.

The Quick Tasks page cannot change the time of a schedule that exists. For another time, build a new schedule and delete the old one.

Ideas

• Map rotation: schedule Change Map instead of a restart: How to rotate maps on a schedule on your DDNet server.
• A backup before a big change: How to back up and restore your DDNet server.

See How to schedule tasks and automatic backups for every part of the page.